Ayr Flames Midget Rep Team wins Hespeler Olympics 'A' Tournament during Christmas Break
On Sunday evening, the Ayr Flames Midget team defeated the Oshawa Minor Generals Major Midget A team 3-0 to win the 47th annual Hespeler Olympics Tournament. The tournament featured eight teams from Hespeler, Fort Erie, Brantford, Waterloo, Guelph, Grimsby, Oshawa and Ayr. As the only OMHA B centre team in the 'A' tournament, it was a good test for the Ayr squad as it prepares for the second half of the season.
In the round robin portion of the tournament earlier in the weekend, Ayr defeated the Hespeler Shamrocks 3-0, the Fort Erie Jr. Meteors 3-2, and the Oshawa Minor Generals 6-1, finishing 1st overall. The semifinal was a re-match with the Hespeler hosts, which Ayr secured with a 5-0 score. The final was another re-match, this time with the Oshawa Minor Generals, and Ayr prevailed once again with the 3-0 win. Goaltender Colt Seraphim only allowed 3 goals in the entire tournament and secured 3 shutouts, behind a great defensive corps. Centre Ben Cordon led all Ayr scorers with 4 goals in the tournament.
As it was the Christmas holidays, the Ayr team relied once again on the support of their affiliated players, Evan Craib and Jacob Yates, who were called up to fill open roster spots in most of the games and performed exceptionally well. The next challenge for the Flames is the upcoming North American Silver Stick Finals on January 10-12 in Forest, Ontario.
Photo credit to Clare Atkinson